If I Should Stay
by CrimsonStrawberry17
Summary: Yami, a street orphan, unknowingly saves Mokuba Kaiba from a car accident. Lost in a coma, Yami wanders the hospital as a spirit, pondering the reasons he should stay. And the reasons why a certain Seto Kaiba continually visits his bedside.


_Hello everyone, this is my first completed fanfic. I hope everyone enjoys it. Inspiration came from the novel _If I Stay_, by Gayle Forman. It's a good book, even if it is a little sad and made me cry._

_Disclaimers: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh and I claim no ownership of _If I Stay_. I used to have a copy of that book but a certain older sister of mine took it when she moved out. *Pouts* Not fair, even if the book is technically hers . . . ._

_Warnings: Attempted suicide. Few cuss words. Um . . . minor character death? I don't really think anyone's going be traumatized by this. It's pretty mild, but I rated it T just in case. I'm new to this . . . I don't know if that's too high or not. Oh well, on with the story!_

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If I Should Stay

_Beep. Beep. Beep._ Week after week. _Beep. Beep. Beep._ Day in and day out. _Beep. Beep. Beep._ Hour after hour. They never stop their monotonous hums and beeps. Here. In the room across the hall. On the floors above me. The floors below me. The noise is everywhere. A constant presence in the world locked away behind glass doors and alabaster walls.

Every day there is a new face here. Women. Children. Men. Doctors. Nurses. Mothers. Sons. Daughters. Fathers. Uncles. Aunts. Brothers. Sisters. Cousins. Friends. Family . . . . The list of these people goes on and on.

Nurses in blue uniforms stroll constantly in and out of this large room, checking the slumbering figures in the neat and orderly rows of beds lined on either side of the room. Once in a blue moon, one wakes up, and they are moved to a new location. Doctors in crisp white coats come in occasionally, checking up upon their patients until some other task whisks them away in the daily hustle of hospital life.

Normal people come daily, bringing get well gifts for their sleeping loved ones, sometimes sitting down to chat about things happening in their lives or breaking down into tears and begging for them to wake up. No one ever does. I don't know these people, but I listen to them anyway, it's nice to know someone can care about someone this much.

Sometimes, I like to sit down in the chairs next to them, or across from them . . . just to pretend they are talking to me. Because no one's ever cared about me in that way before. I didn't have a family, nowhere to really call home, just the faces of people paid to take care of people like me. Today, this includes the nurses.

But I am lying a little, but only because I do not really believe it myself, but the proof is always in front of me and now I find myself waiting eagerly for his return each day. He is a stranger, like everyone else, but unlike everyone else, he comes for me. The thought makes me smile. It makes me happy.

Eleven fifteen, right on the dot each time, he arrives well after visiting hours, and he always brings a gift. Flowers. Colorful origami animals. Both creative and I believe self-designed, get well cards, as well as dueling cards. A small crimson pillow. Stuffed animals. Each and every one of them colorful. Tonight he brings a dragon.

It is white, with blue eyes . . . . Oh, I see, the blue eyes white dragon from Duel Monsters. I find it adorable despite the fierce prowess I know it possesses in the game. I wonder if he shares my passion for it, having found several cards thrown away in trash cans when someone thought they were worthless and threw them out. My favorite out of all of them was the Dark Magician, which I find powerful enough, and I cannot fathom why someone would throw it out.

The duel monster cards lie besides my bed now, on the little bedside table now overflowing with gifts. In fact, there were so many gifts, the stranger had once brought in a large chest and placed it at the foot of my bed, where all my stuffed animals usually go now. The top of the bedside table was reserved for flowers, now covered in vases containing white and red roses, a blue lotus, orchids, and a branch of cherry blossoms.

The get well cards are stowed away in the top drawer of the table while the duel monster cards had been added to my deck. Strangely, the cards that had been added revolve around the ones I had already, mostly magicians and tricks, as well as warriors and a Kuriboh.

Several of the origami animals, mostly the newer ones, were placed on the table among the vases. The rest of them had been placed in the middle drawer, which is slowly filling up. I suspect that the stranger is attempting to fold a thousand of them, while ignoring the fact that they're supposed to be cranes. But now that I think about it, one of every three he gives _are_ red cranes.

This makes me laugh. Although he never speaks, or does anything besides sit beside my bed for an hour, he does not seem like the type to believe in the old superstition that if you fold one thousand cranes your wish would be granted. Yet I admire him for it, because it makes me happy, although he does not know it. His very presence makes me happy.

I like to sit across from him, as he sits beside my bed, always deep in thought. As though searching for an answer that keeps slipping away from him each time he reached out to grasp it. The stranger never noticed me, but I didn't mind, his very presence was enough for me.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._ The seconds crawl leisurely around the numbers of the clock. _Beep. Beep. Beep._ The minutes tick by slowly. _Beep. Beep. Beep._ The hours pass even more gradually.

_I find this rather stupid._ My fingers tap soundlessly on the airs of the plastic chair I sat in. _Yes, very stupid._ I look up at the ditigal clock mounted on the wall above the door. It reads 4:30 P.M. in bright green figures. I sigh, looking around at several nurses as they attend to their patients.

One comes over to check on my monitors, looking down at the slumbering body on the bed before checking something off on a clip board and moving on. She doesn't notice me. No one ever does.

I look at the clock. It now reads 4:31 P.M. _This is really stupid._ A woman walks in with her toddler son, sitting down and smiling at her slumbering husband. I feel a flare of jealousy. Sighing, I push the feeling away. It doesn't matter anyway.

So what if the stranger hadn't come yesterday? Or the day before that? So what if I missed the stranger's face and the gifts he brought each day. I didn't know him, and he didn't know me. He doesn't have any obligations to me…does he? I cannot help but to wonder.

I sigh again and stand, taking leave of my chair and exiting the room. Perhaps I could take my mind off the stranger if I wandered other parts of the building. But it didn't help much. Everywhere I looked I saw something that reminded me of him, whether it was just the color blue or some stuffed animal the small kids in the children's ward hugged to their chests.

I continued to wander, passing a room with a woman crying in pain as the nurses and doctors bustle around her. A man waits outside the door, an anxious look on his face, looking torn between going in to be with his wife and staying safely out of range of the blood. The former wins and he steps in just as a loud cry rents the air. A new child was born into the world at that moment.

Down the hall, I stop at another door. A new life may have been born, but another always goes away. A middle aged man with graying hair smiles up at his wife one last time as the heart monitor goes flat.

One less machine adding to the noise of orderly chaos within this prison of life and death. I watch as he slips free of his body, still smiling at his mourning wife, and nod to him as he looks up at me.

"No more pain . . . ." he whispered- referring to the injuries that littered his corpse, all wrapped up in white linens. "You know, you have to make a decision, to stay or go. She will miss me," he told me, looking back at the raven haired woman crying as she held his body's hand. "But it was the right thing to do."

I didn't answer him but he continued anyway. "Stay or go," he repeated, "What will you choose? You can't stay like this forever. You seem a little too young to die, though. You should go back to your family."

"What if…what if you have no family? When you are a shunned orphan turned away from even the orphanages, who do I have to go back to? A life of living on the streets, scavenging and begging for food because everyone you meet thinks you're worthless?"

"Then move on," the man replied.

"And if heaven itself rejects me and throws me down to the pits of hell?"

The man smiled, "Then you must find something worthwhile in _this_ hell. Either way, _you_ must make the decision. Life or Death. Your choice, but remember, you never know who could care for you out there."

A slash of light appeared in the air besides us and I stared at it as the man walked towards it. "Hey, old man." He turned back. "I bet you were loved. By a lot of people." He nodded, smiling. "Must be nice . . . to be loved. To have a family."

He nodded again, "Yes, it is." He turned back to the light and stepped through. "I bet someone out there cares for you," was the last I heard and saw of him as he disappeared with the light.

I thought of the stranger that used to come and sit beside me each night, the little gifts he would bring. I shake my head, trying to clear his face from his mind, but it sticks. Sighing I step backwards out of the room and let my feet wander where they will.

I passed more rooms filled with sickly and dying patients, devoid of any color but random splashes here and there that somehow make it gloomier. I make a face at the clean white walls, the fresh white sheets, the fluffed white pillows, the white square tiles on the floors and ceilings, the coats on the doctors.

Could it be any whiter?

I pass a waiting room filled with white cushioned chairs, getting my answer.

Why oh why? Why did everything have to be so white? I rather abhor the color now. Before, I used to always love the white clouds, and now . . . . I pass the children's ward again, painted with white clouds in a blue sky with birds and cartoon characters and a sun. Now . . . I find I can't stand the sight of one, even if it's painted. Funny how a few weeks trapped in a hospital can do that to you.

My feet find their way back to my own ward, eyes downcast as I counted tiles, bored. I looked up as I neared my bed, only to stop and stare as I found the stranger sitting beside my bed once again. He sweeps away the dead flowers, replacing them with a bouquet of scarlet roses. In the middle of the bouquet was a sapphire blue rose that matched the stranger's eyes.

"Sorry Yami, I've been away for a while, but I'm back now and I won't be leaving on any more business trips anytime soon." I felt a thrill go through me as he said my name. It felt nice to hear someone say my name like that.

The man's words flashed through my head at the feeling. "Maybe you were right . . . ." I said to the ceiling. The lights flickered once, and I knew somewhere up there, the man was smiling down at me. But I wasn't ready to make my decision yet.

Who knew why this man came and sat by my bed side each night? Or why he brought gifts. Or even . . . cared? I wanted to know that more than anything. Why would this man, who I had never seen before, care about a little street rat like me?

Months pass, the stranger returns each night on the dot, always with a new gift. Another wide, but thin, box is shoved under my bed containing even more gifts. Several of the stuffed animals litter my bed, including the stuffed white dragon the stranger had given me months ago. A stranger . . . who is no longer a stranger.

I don't know why, but ever since that night he left on a business trip, my nightly visitor had begun talking to me. His name is Seto, Seto Kaiba, in full. I like his name. And I like his voice. Deep and smooth…and comforting. I like everything about him, in fact.

As time goes on, I find I want to touch him more and more, to reach out and feel the warmth I know is radiating through his skin.

But I cannot.

So I sit and listen to him, enjoying the sound and sight of him, and loving every moment of it. I find I can no longer stray from my room like I used to, forced to pace the large room in boredom and listen to others.

But all the same, I learn more and more about Seto, and the reason he began to visit me. It seems it is the same reason I am in the hospital. I had saved his baby brother's life by pushing him out of the way of a speeding car driven by a drunk man not paying attention to where he was going in the middle of a school zone.

Mokuba was the boy's name. And as it turns out, the kid had been listening to headphones and didn't think to look both ways before crossing the street, therefore not noticing the swerving car heading right for him.

He had suffered minor injuries because I, for some reason, had jumped in front of the car to push him out of the way. He got off with nothing more than bruises, scrapes, and a broken wrist.

_I_ however, had suffered a blow to the head from the concrete, broken six of my fingers, earned myself a jagged scar on my right hip where the truck's fender had plowed into me, cracked several of my ribs, sprained my ankle, and got my lung punctured by a broken rib.

I nearly died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital from that, and I don't even want to think about how much pain my body had been in, lucky me…I was unconscious the whole time. Technically, I'm still unconscious. But enough of un-pleasantries, and let's move back onto Seto.

In the beginning, Seto paid my hospital bills out of mere debt for saving his brother, thinking I was one of those people who only did these things to get money. To be perfectly honest, I'd never even heard of Seto before, although it seems he was rather famous and the richest man in all of Domino.

Wonder how I missed that fact. But then again, I was always more concerned on surviving rather than getting to know celebrities.

But anyway, it seems that for the first three weeks, Seto had brought me gifts only because Mokuba asked him to. He would come sit by my bed to wonder who I was and why I had saved his brother, his mind going through everything from money, to fame, to being some elaborate scheme to get his company.

Nobody knew who I was, having no ID, or records of any kind, except in the orphanages where I had stayed. So, Seto continued to ponder my identity and my motives and got into the habit of bringing gifts and sitting at my bedside as he searched for an answer.

It was during his business trip that he got one of them, who I was. The fact that I was an orphan and living on the streets seemed to have made him open up to me, which was also when he started talking to me. It seems Seto and his brother were orphans as well, before they were adopted by Gozaburo Kaiba.

Each night Seto came, he poured more and more of his heart out to me, I find myself wishing I could tell him about myself too. But I could do nothing but listen as Seto revealed a side of him I doubted even Mokuba had seen much, and found a dark side to Seto that belayed all the scorn and speeches of cold-heartedness and how he got everything on a golden platter I'd heard the nurses murmur about him in the mornings.

Seto had earned it all through pain and blood, suffering under Gozaburo's thumb and enduring rigorous schooling, and cruel punishments.

Then, there were the weapons. Seto had been forced to create dozens of weapons built to destroy lives, even the virtual reality he had created for games, and for Mokuba-had been taken by Gozaburo to be used as a weapon. It was what made Seto rebel against the cruel man, and he had succeeded, tearing down the former weapons company and turning it into a gaming corporation.

Now, his dream of having virtual reality games have come true, he and Mokuba are safe from Gozaburo who had thrown himself out the window after Seto had taken his company. Besides the few attempts at a hostile takeover of Kaiba Corps and a few kidnapping experiences for Mokuba, the two brothers were happy together.

The thought of it makes me happy. Happy…and sad. Because _I_ had never known a family, had never known the love and affection they gave to their loved ones. Despite all the trauma and horror the Kaiba brothers had experienced they had always had each other, even when Gozaburo tried to pull them apart.

And that was what made the choice so hard. Torn between going peacefully to face whatever afterlife there was, or remaining here, not knowing whether or not I could find someone who would love me back . . . . Even if Seto came to my bedside table each night, it didn't mean Seto truly cared about me.

For all I knew, Seto only came out of obligation, because I saved his brother's life. Who knew? Maybe he was using me to boost his public image. I could see the headlines now, 'The Great Seto Kaiba Mourns the Comatose Savior of His Baby Brother.'

Maybe one of the reporters would come in here to snap a picture of me with Kaiba at my bedside offering me white roses or something.

I laugh at the thought, but deep inside, it hurts. I didn't know this man. I didn't know his motives. I wasn't important. I wasn't _Somebody_. Just a reject. Just the dirty street rat who saw a boy step in the way of Death and intervened. Nothing more.

Seto surprises me one night . . . he's early. It's only ten forty-six. He usually doesn't come until eleven fifteen. How strange. But I guess it doesn't matter.

I'm too tired to listen to Seto anymore, I barely have the energy to get off of this chair, much less turn my head and actually focus on the man. And it scares me. Especially when every now and then I see a glimmer of bright white light, similar to the man from earlier departed in.

Am I really ready to go? Or was there ever a choice in the first place? My body is dying, I've heard the nurses and doctors whisper it to each other, as though saying the words would make me die at that moment. I can see my body is weakening, the skin turning a waxy white and gray.

Maybe the old man was wrong, and I should just give up now and go into that bright light that somehow gets more welcoming and warm as though it were a beacon in the darkness of an icy storm, promising peace and warmth. The more I think about it, the more I want to reach out to it and let it take me away from this world.

It's been another week, and the urge to go to the beckoning light gets stronger as it appears more often. I'm so tired now; I'd fall asleep if I could. I find myself wondering why I haven't made up my mind yet, but it seems something is holding me back.

I manage to turn my head to look at the empty chair on the opposite side of the bed. Perhaps I've grown so attached to seeing him that I'm unwilling to leave?

Inside, I laugh at the thought, even though now, I haven't the energy to laugh out loud.

I blink slowly, almost sleepily, as a shouting match erupts outside the door to my ward. Hmm…its Seto's voice and the voice of one of the doctors that often attends to me. They entered the room, Seto looking like he could strangle the man in the white coat who was keeping as far as politely possible from the CEO.

I find I'm able to smile for the first time in several weeks. But it quickly turns into a frown when I listen more closely to what they're arguing about. It seems the doctor wants to pull the plug on me, claiming I was already practically dead and possibly suffering in pain, so it would be better if they just let me die already.

I'm unsure what to think about all this, but I do feel anger. I was still here, I hadn't decided yet if I wanted to stay or go, why should they have the right to decide for me? Of course, I know why the doctor _really_ wants to pull my plug.

I've heard all the nurses and other doctors say it, they thought I wasn't good enough to be taken care of like this, being a dirty street rat and all. Just worthless trash to their eyes.

I feel cheered when Seto point blank snaps _'no'_ at him and orders him to leave the room. He sits by my bed and sighs as he runs a hand through his chocolate brown hair. For some reason, the action made me long for chocolate, a sweetness I haven't had in a long time.

I wonder if they have chocolate in heaven. Maybe, maybe not, the bible says we don't need to eat, but it doesn't say we _can't_ eat. Interesting, maybe I'll be finding out the answer soon if the doctor has his way. Though I wonder why Seto refuses to have the plug pulled. Is it still obligatory?

"Yami . . . ." the soft whisper draws me from my musings and I find the energy to look at him. "Yami . . . please. Wake up. I don't know how long I can keep them from pulling the plug. So just wake up now and open your eyes. Because you know . . . I actually want to see their color."

I blink slowly at him. _He wants to see my eyes?_ I wonder, confused. Hasn't he read the files about me from the orphanage? Didn't he know that they had nicknamed me 'devil's child' because they were that color? It's beyond me why he wants to see eyes the color of blood.

Unexpectedly, he reaches out and takes the pale, limp hand on the bed. "Yami…wake up," he whispers more strongly this time. With his other hand he pulls out a red origami crane. "This is number one thousand, Yami. You'd better wake up now. Mokuba made some of these for you; in fact, I've caught him staying up late to fold them."

I have to smile at that, he sounds like a good kid; I almost wish I could meet him. Seto had always described him as cheerful and energetic, and a little bit crazy when he gets too much sugar.

I look down at the crane, and without thinking or understanding why, I find myself reaching across the bed to touch it. I don't know how I found the energy to move, or why I thought I could touch it, but I do it anyway. I have to brace my hand against the bed to reach, only to gasp as my hand sinks into the pale flesh of my hand and I suddenly feel the warmth of Seto's hand around mine.

Warmth. I haven't felt that since I became trapped in ghostly form, unable to touch small objects or people. I couldn't smell or feel in this state, only watch and listen.

I look up into Seto's blue eyes, looking down at my still body, eyes begging me to awake. Before I register what I am doing I find myself plunging headfirst into my comatose body, making the heart monitor go crazy as my heart begins to beat faster and my breathing quickens.

Shocked, Seto buzzes quickly for the nurse, fear in his eyes as he jumps up, the action knocking the chair over in the process. "Yami?" he asks anxiously.

I take a few moments to recover from the sudden return to my body, letting my breathing steady and heart calm before slowly opening my eyes. I shy away from the bright florescent light above me and turn my head off to the side. I swallow to find my throat is incredibly dry and my head was throbbing.

"Yami?" Somehow, Seto's voice sounds so much sweeter with my actual ears.

I cautiously open my eyes and looked up into a sea of blue. His face is no longer open, like it always was when I was comatose, but I can see relief in those swirling orbs which hold no coldness for me. The thought makes enduring my heavy body and pain a little better.

The nurse rushed in, nearly choking as she saw I was awake, and I wish I could sneer at her. She was the one who hated me the most and the first to think the plug should be pulled on me. I try to speak, but my mouth opens and closes soundlessly as my dry lips crack. I can taste a hint of copper on them as I lick the torn skin, my throat feeling scratchy from the attempt.

"Get a glass of water, and find the doctor. _Now_," Seto commands the nurse who hurried to obey the annoyed tone he gave her. She returns in record time with a glass and informs Seto the doctor is on his way. She vacates the room quickly as Seto sits on my bed and helps me drink down the lukewarm water.

Despite the metallic taste, I gulp it down gratefully, enjoying the warmth of Seto's hand on the back of my head, holding it up so that I could drink.

The doctor comes in just as Seto sets the empty glass on the table. The doctor looks shocked to see me awake, and I see him throw me a hateful glare when Seto looks away. I find myself drifting off back to sleep as the doctor begins to talk to Seto, finding myself cuddling something soft. My eyes flicker open briefly, and I hug the stuffed blue eyes white dragon closer to me as I fall back to sleep.

I woke alone in a new and unfamiliar room, with only one other patient besides me who is sleeping, and the stuffed dragon is still clutched in my arms. I smile when I find everything I had back in the coma ward had been transferred to my new location, and happily lean down to smell the fresh red roses on my nightstand.

The door opens while I enjoy the smell, and I fight back a scowl at the nurse who comes in with a tray. Her face has a sickening sweet smile on it that I distrust instantly, my old instincts warning me something most likely very bad was going to happen.

I struggle not to leap out of bed and run away when she comes closer, a glint in her eyes. Not that I could, my legs felt too heavy to do that sort of thing, it was hard enough leaning over to smell the roses.

The smile's still plastered to her face as she reaches my bed, "Are you hungry, dear?" she asks sweetly. Swallowing around the lump in my throat I nod, hoping she wasn't going to do what I thought she was about to do. Her smile turned into a nasty smirk.

"Good . . . you can lick yourself off like the dirty alley cat you are!" Without further ado, she dumped the tray upside down, getting some onto herself and screaming, running from the room. Outside I could hear her yelling her something about me being a rude foul mouthed boy who tried to throw the tray at her when she attempted to _generously_ feed me.

Sometimes, I hate it when I'm right. Stupid little bitch.

I don't get food for the rest of the day, and I attempt to fall asleep while ignoring my growling stomach. Luckily, someone had cleaned me up and changed my sheets earlier, but I suspect that's just because they're expecting Seto to come in at his usual and doesn't want him know how they're _really_ treating me.

Everyone that came in contact with me seemed to believe the story that lying nurse had concocted and treated me as such. Vaguely, I wonder if Seto would hear of my 'fictional behavior', from the nurse in an attempt to convince him that I am worthless and should just be thrown back onto the streets, or secretly injected with some type of lethal injection that kills me.

Hmm . . . there's actually a 50% chance that she would try. On one hand she could succeed and get rid of me, but on the other hand she could get fired. I only hope she'll think the possibility of getting fired isn't worth telling Seto the lies.

My eyes start to drift shut, although now, I want to see Seto. Just in case.

I get my wish when I am awoken by angry yelling, and open my eyes to see Seto glaring in fury at the cowering nurse who had dumped the food on me, and the shaking doctor who wanted to pull my plug. I blink when I catch some of what Seto is screaming at them.

I wonder how Seto knows they haven't fed me all day until I catch sight of my roommate's eyes slipping open and giving me a wink and sly smile before going back to 'sleep.' Warmth spreads through me at the action and I look back at Seto who had stopped yelling at them and was looking at me.

"You have ten minutes to bring back some food for Yami before you find yourselves sued and unemployed," Seto snapped back at the nurse and doctor who nodded hastily and scrambled out of the room.

We gazed at each other the whole time we were alone until the nurse returned, and Seto retreated to the chair in the corner while I ate. When I had finished, he nodded to me, and stood, turning his icy gaze back on the nurse.

"If I find out you've been neglecting your duties and dumping trays on him again, _you will regret it_. And trust me, I _will_ find out." He left with a flare of his white trench coat and I snuck a glance over my roommate while the nurse's back was still turned. I didn't doubt that.

"Thanks," I whispered after the nurse had left and my blonde roommate gave a fake snore, making me snicker silently. I grab my stuffed blue eyes white dragon and snuggle further into the thin sheets, slipping my eyes closed.

A week passed before I saw Seto again, and my cheerful and kind roommate was released from the hospital. The last I saw of him was running out of the room with a whoop after he signed his release papers. I wished I could have gone with him; he seems so nice, surely he would not mind me around?

But several minutes after he walked, or ran actually, out the door Seto appeared. I was curious why he was here, but I didn't ask. It occurred to me then that I haven't spoken at all to him since I've woken up. But then again, I don't know what to say to him.

"Hello Yami," Seto greets me neutrally. After a moment, I whisper hello back. I suddenly feel nervous around him.

"I'm sure you've been told, I am Seto Kaiba by now, and that the boy you saved was my younger brother Mokuba."

He frowned when I didn't answer. "Yami?" he pressed, "The doctor or nurses did tell you that, right?"

"I was told . . ." I whispered, ". . . but not by them." My heart was hammering and I was glad I didn't have the heart monitor machine anymore. If I did, it would be going haywire right about now as Seto's frown got deeper.

"What do you mean?" the voice was soft, but firm and demanding. I remembered Seto saying something once about giving orders not let anyone other than hospital staff and himself near me, and I suspected he was thinking someone else got to me while he was gone.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and looked him straight in the eyes. "Would you believe me if I told you that while I was in a coma my spirit wasn't in my body? That my spirit could wander around the hospital and hear and see everything that went on around me? That I sat and listened to you each night when you always came at eleven fifteen on the dot?"

"Would you still believe me when I told you I spoke once to a dead man who told me I had a choice to make, whether to stay or go in my wanderings? And when I returned to my room I found you waiting for me after you returned from your business trip and finally started to open up about me because you had found out my identity and knew I was an orphan?"

"Or that on the day I woke up, after you told the doctor who wanted to pull the plug on me no, you gave me the last of a thousand red cranes and told me to wake up because your baby brother made some of those cranes? Or if I told you that I sat next to you when you told me of your past, and that you were an orphan too? And about Gozaburo?"

Seto sat frozen, eyes widened in shock and an unreadable emotion as it all spilled through my lips in an unstoppable waterfall. I didn't know why I was telling him this.

As the last words fell from me, Seto was standing, backing away to the door with wide eyes. His lips moved, but no words came as he slowly shook his head in a disbelieving manner.

The door creaked shut as he fled through it.

Seto didn't come back that day. Or the next. Or even the following week. The nurse, noticing this, took up her hateful attitude again and I wasn't fed for two days straight, but I didn't care. I was used to not eating for long periods of time.

I had been weak from being in a coma for almost six months, but I could walk now that I've gained my strength back. They don't allow me out of the room, so the best I can do is sit in a chair and stare out the window watching the snow softly fall from the sky.

It seems only yesterday I had been walking outside the school in the warm June air before this whole disaster occurred. Looking out, I see a family whose dad I remember encountering in the terminally ill ward in one of my ghostly wanderings. Guess he wasn't so sick after all. But the sight makes me sad.

That man survived a disease so he could go home to his family. I survived a coma, but I had no reason for it. I should have gone into the light. I don't know what had prompted me to stay . . . but I know now, it had been a mistake to stay. There's nothing for me here, no friends or family, no home to go back to.

No one to care if I vanished off the face of this earth.

I laugh, though it's not really that funny as I pick up the blue eyes white dragon. I don't know why Seto, no, _Kaiba_ really saved me. He should have let me die, let the doctor pull the plug. It would have been so much easier.

I put down the stuffed dragon and slowly leave the room, even though I want to take it with me. No one's there to stop me this time when I step out my door. The nurse who sits at the desk in the center of the room connecting the others is gone. Maybe it's a sign that it is time for me to go.

I step onto the elevator and ride down to the lobby. No one seems to notice me as I step out the front door into the freezing cold. All I have on is a pair of thin white slippers and a flimsy hospital gown but the cold strangely doesn't bother me. I'm lost in the swirling snow as I let my feet take me where they will, even if _I_ don't know where I'm going yet.

I find myself in a park, among snow laden trees stripped bare of their leaves. For a second I wonder why, then I remember, there's a bridge here, erected over where a small pond connects with a small stream winding through the trees.

As I step to the center of the bridge, I stop to look at the scene. It's quiet beautiful, and I find myself lost in the winter wonderland landscape, and wouldn't be too surprised if snow fairies and ice queens on sleighs pulled by reindeer suddenly appeared.

I almost laugh when I mistake the wind as someone calling my name as I step onto the thin iron railing of the small stone bridge. I stand there for a second, and then gave another laugh as I hear my name called again by the wind and without a second thought, take a small step over the edge.

The icy wind blew at me, and I hear my name called again, but this time . . . I'm not entirely sure it's the wind.

I look around me and time seems to freeze as my own eyes find his. Seto's there . . . running towards me with a small raven haired boy and several men in black suits and tinted glasses running after him. Those blue eyes are panicked, though I can't fathom why.

It doesn't matter anyway; all my thoughts are whisked away as I hit the surface of the icy water and find myself sinking deep below into its depth. I find myself smiling, wondering if it's possible that I'll find my family up there somewhere. Or the man I spoke to while I was in a coma and wandering the halls.

I find it harder and harder to think as the icy darkness wraps around me, only to find something had wrapped around my wrist and pulling me up.

A blast of freezing air makes me gasp and choke as I find myself pulled up onto the bank and wrapped tight into someone's arms. Words reached my ears, indiscernible, but the tone is frightened and angry. Confused, I look up, still coughing up water only to near choke on it to find Seto staring down at me, shivering at the water soaking him to the bone.

I find myself whispering 'why' to him before the world goes deaf and dark around me.

A bright light penetrates my eyelids and I groan as I turn over, trying to block out the light. My arms tighten around a stuffed thing and someone chuckles as fingers run through my hair. Confused, I open my eyes and blink sleepily up into blue ones. A minute passed before everything came rushing back to me.

I saw myself on the bridge again, jumping off as the wind called my name. No . . . Seto. It had been Seto calling my name. And when I was sinking into the water, waiting for Death to come take me away, it had been Seto to dive in after me and pull me back up.

"Yami?" he asked softly. Seto's voice deep and smooth, but somehow . . . it makes me angry. Without thinking, I launch myself at him, knocking him back off the bed.

"WHY! Why did you save me? Why couldn't you just let me die?" My fists pounded into him, but were grabbed in Seto's larger ones and I glanced up to meet furious blue eyes.

"Why?" he snarled angrily. "Why were _you_ trying to kill yourself?"

"And why not! It's not like anyone cares. I'm just a dirty little street rat that will never be worth anything. I don't have _anything_. So why keep living?"

Seto snorted and grabbed my chin, making me look up him. "Yami . . . don't you think I would have let them pull the plug if I really thought you were worthless?"

I froze, staring wide eyed at him with his words echoing in my mind. Seto . . . didn't think I was worthless. I find my vision suddenly blurry as tears burned in my eyes, though I'm trying hard not to cry.

Arms wrap gently around me as Seto pulls me into his warm embrace, rubbing my back comforting. I find myself lost in the feeling, burying my face into his chest, and I never want him to stop. His heart beats gently against my ear and I press closer, loving the sound. My eyes drift close involuntarily and I cling to Seto as the world tilts and spins pleasantly around me and I know no more.

The sounds of an engine wakes me, and I blink my eyes open to stare at leather seats ahead of me and a plain of white my head seems to be resting on. The white shifts and a hand brushes through my hair, and I realize the plain of white was in fact someone's leg.

I look up, vaguely noting I was in some kind of car with a rather large interior and blink sleepily up at Seto who continued running his fingers through my hair. A smile lit up his beautiful face, "Good Morning," he greeted, to which I returned with an untimely yawn.

I blushed slightly but he only chuckled and looked out the window. I followed his gaze and blinked inquiring at the range of snow laden trees outside the dark tinted window. Where were they? I had never seen so many trees in Domino before, except at the park, but there wasn't enough room for a car to travel through the trees like they were doing now.

"Seto? Where are we?" I ventured, eyes blinking sleepily as I struggled not be lulled back to sleep from the warmth around me.

Seto looked down and smiled softly, "You'll see. Go back to sleep, I'll wake you when we get there."

"But I don't wanna," I whined, making Seto shake his head at me and start up his repetitive stroking of my hair again. Before I knew it, my eyes had slipped shut on their own accord and I found myself spiraling down into a world of dreams.

Seto shook me awake after what only felt like minutes and led me from the back of the limo. I watched my feet as I got out, noticing I was wearing a black coat trimmed in gray fur with a matching set of boots that went half way up to my knee and thick black pants. Seto takes my hand into his, and for the first time, I realize I am wearing a matching set of black gloves as well.

I look at Seto, wondering how much it had cost him, and how he knew that black and gray were among my favorite colors. Seto seemed to know what I was thinking and smiled, before glancing ahead of us. Curious, I followed his gaze, and could only stare wide eyed at the huge mansion before me.

Bewildered, I glance back up at Seto. "This is my home, Yami."

"Oh . . . ." I looked back up at it. "It's beautiful. And big." I glanced around at the garden and the décor. "Seto must really like his home," I mused quietly, noting how well taken care of everything was. I looked down when I felt a gentle squeeze on my hand and glanced up to see Seto smiling softly at him.

"It can be your home too, if you'd like."

I remembered the man's words from earlier, of never knowing if there was someone out there that would care for him. Why did Seto care for me? He barely knew him. I knew him, from all the times Seto had spoken of himself. Of his childhood. Of the younger brother whose life he saved. Of the life he led.

So why? What had driven Seto to save me? To dive in the water after me even at the risk of dying himself from the cold? To stop the doctors from pulling the plug? I was nothing. Always had been. My own parents hadn't wanted me. And now Seto was offering me a home with him.

I felt Seto's warm hand in my own and looked up to see those deep blue eyes glowing with warmth back at me. I didn't understand, but perhaps I could find out.

I smiled. "I would like that."

~ End ~

_Thank You everyone for reading this! Now if you be ever so kind and give me a review. Flames are welcome. I give no guarantee that I won't laugh at them or use them to roase marshmallows for smores. Oh, and can anyone guess who Yami's roomate was? I put a few hints in there, I'd love to hear your answers. Ja ne!_


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